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For Paul Grizzle, India is close to his heart. It was his first mission trip in 2011 at the end of his freshman year at Valor Christian High School that first got him excited about serving and loving the poor and “untouchables” of India’s caste system. The recent Valor Christian High School Discovery trip to the slums of Kolkata, India and surrounding villages was the third such trip that Grizzle has undertaken and this time, he took some used equipment from the Colorado Rapids to distribute to some of the poorest of the poor in the world.

You never see the same thing in India, this trip was different because I was asking bigger questions than previous trips. Instead of just looking to serve and bring Jesus by bringing myself, I was wondering how to bring Jesus in other ways. I started wrestling with questions of how to impact things in a larger way.

For Grizzle, some of the questions were more difficult to answer – questions about affecting the poor and ending sex trafficking were on Grizzle’s heart and mind. Some of the harsh reality was realizing that there will always be poor people and there may never be ways to end all of the oppressive and harmful things that happen.

Grizzle and the team received some used equipment from the Colorado Rapids – equipment included soccer bags, clothes, and a few pairs of shoes and hats that got handed out to the kids and a few local pastors to distribute.

Grizzle and the Valor team hosted two “Sports Days” where they handed out the equipment and played games with children including playing soccer. The first sports day was in Kolkata itself and then another day in the village of Pratapur.

At the end of one of the the sports days, I saw a little boy walking off with one of the Rapids’ hats and he had a big smile on his face – I think he knew that it was a soccer hat and it was awesome to see just that small thing bring him such joy.

If you would like to support future Timothy Project ventures, such as this one, please use the PayPal link below to make a donation. Your financial gift helps to secure additional equipment, sponsor a missionary or organization in an outreach effort, and cover associated costs of providing bibles, soccer equipment, and other outreach tools locally and around the world!

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